Access to Formal and Quasi-Formal Credit by Smallholder Farmers and Artisanal Fishermen: A Case of Zanzibar

3.6 Access to Formal and Quasi-Formal Credit Access to Formal and Quasi-Formal Credit by Smallholder Farmers and Artisanal Fishermen: A Case of Zanzibar i Access to Formal and Quasi-Formal Credit ii Access to Formal and Quasi-Formal Credit Access to Formal and Quasi-Formal Credit by Smallholder Farmers and Artisanal Fishermen: A Case of Zanzibar Research Report No. [...] So as to establish viii Access to Formal and Quasi-Formal Credit the empirical evidence on the link between credit use and poverty alleviation, the study attempted to make an assessment of the impact of the credit on income and improvement of standard of living of the credit user. [...] More specifically, the study aims at: • Assessing the operational procedures and performance of the existing formal and quasi-formal credit sources in availing credit services to smallholder farmers and artisanal fishermen; • Determining factors that influence credit accessibility by farmers and artisanal fishermen; • Assessing the impact of credit on income and the livelihood of the credit users;. [...] 1.6 Study Questions The following research questions guided this study: • How relevant are the operational procedures and conditionalities of existing formal and quasi-formal credit arrangements to the needs and aspirations of smallholder farmers and artisanal fishermen and to the sustainability of the credit arrangements? • What socio-economic factors influence accessibility to credit by small fa. [...] However, it is believed that the data obtained provide a useful basis of information for making recommendations to improve access to credit by the majority rural poor and in the enhancement of the effectiveness and efficiency of the credit delivery and recovery mechanisms of various credit institutions and micro- credit programmes.